


Picnic for the Dying

by Estirose



Category: Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: Gen, Jossed, Post-Series, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-10
Updated: 2011-08-10
Packaged: 2017-10-22 11:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/237462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shingo and Hina have a bittersweet picnic. Post-series, spoilers for late 40s, speculation for what might happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Picnic for the Dying

Shingo folded his hands as his sister, Hina, set out lunch. He'd just come back from time in the Kougami Foundation labs, trying to find a way to force the two cores out of his body before he, like Dr. Maki and Hino Eiji, succumbed to being a Greeed. Ankh's schemes had left him somewhere between human and Greeed, though thankfully not to the point that he was starting to lose his senses like Eiji had.

He knew some of what Eiji had gone through thanks to being host to Ankh, partly from his own observations, and partly from Hina's. Eiji had lost taste first, then smell, then touch, hearing, and finally sight. Shingo couldn't imagine what his life would be like with dulled Greeed senses, as it had been for Eiji.

Eiji who had ended up sealed away himself after destroying Dr Maki. There were only two Greeed now, sealed away to bother humanity no more. Ankh, who represented birds and Eiji, who represented those animals that never existed or were extinct. And if Shingo changed completely, he'd join them as the representative for big cats, Kazari's successor. He'd made sure that the Foundation would honor that wish.

It was funny that of the three of them, two of them had been human themselves and one had spent enough time using human senses that he'd practically become one. The Greeed had been humanized, had human views, were real, had been loved, known love. They were no longer the creations of those long-ago alchemists. The Greeed had always been real, living beings, no matter what Dr. Maki had said. It was just that with everything that had happened, this new 'generation' had human experiences, human desires, human fears.

And there would be only two if the Kougami Foundation succeeded in saving him. He'd never asked to become a Greeed, after all, and their scientists were hopeful they'd convince the cores to emerge, though it was harder as he didn't have Eiji's belt and therefore nowhere for them to slot themselves into. Which was probably why they were still in him.

"Big brother?" Hina asked. He knew what she was asking with that question. Was he okay? Did he feel human? Was he starting to lose himself to the power inside him?

"Just thinking," he said, smiling at her. But Eiji had smiled, too, even as food had become pretty much tasteless and he couldn't smell the flowers. Smiled and lied in order to try not to hurt them, even as he hurt them more by not telling them what was going on.

Hurt, in some way, Hina's trust of Shingo after she found out that he, too carried cores. There was always the look in her eyes that wondered if he, too, would lie about those losses. That she'd lose him little by little as she'd lost Eiji, except some ways worse because he was changing so slowly.

He knew that Ankh had intended to do two things with his choice to embed the Cores in him. One was to keep Eiji from freeing him, because Eiji knew full well what would happen, going through it himself. The second was to change Shingo, make him a Greeed, merge with him, Ankh's mind permanently in his body, with no more Shingo to bother him. It had actually backfired on Ankh, because EIji was determined to save Shingo over saving himself. Had actually saved him, in fact, from Ankh's work to accelerate his host's change. Ankh had been desperate, enough to force a human to become a Greeed despite how badly it turned out for the others.

Shingo was farther along than he should be without Ankh's 'assistance', and yet, it was better than it could be. He was still human, after all, mostly. Ankh could have stuffed more cores into him, and yet he'd relied on using what he'd had at the time. Shingo couldn't feel the cores within him, funnily enough, now that Ankh was no longer in control of his body, where back then there was no way he could ignore them and the little changes they made now and again. Of course, that had been when he'd been pushed into the back seat of his own body, so he'd had more time to pay attention to that.

"You would tell me, right?" He knew that the reason she made him these picnic lunches was because she wanted him to enjoy his senses while he still had them. Unlike him, she wasn't optimistic that her older brother wouldn't change completely.

It was kind of disconcerting, to have his little sister treat him as a terminal cancer patient when as a Greeed he'd live forever, but it was her way of coping. He couldn't deny her that.

"I'm not Eiji or Ankh." He knew that, after all that had happened, he couldn't lie to her. Even if it caused her and him pain, he would keep her informed. When he lost his sense of taste, he'd let her know so she wouldn't prepare meals he couldn't taste; when he lost his sense of smell he'd let her know so she wouldn't bring him flowers.

"Good." But her smile was bittersweet. She'd loved Eiji, and Ankh, just like he had. And she'd lost both of them, and stood to lose him, as well. And he knew, as she did, that there was little he could do. In fact, he could do nothing but keep living and doing what the doctors told him and hope they figured it out before he did lose his humanity. He wanted to be there for Hina for the rest of their lives, if he could. He didn't want to change, and be sealed, and wake up in a world he no longer knew.

"Let's eat," Shingo said, picking up a bowl and chopsticks. He had to think positive, to be there for Hina, to keep the smile on her face as long as he could. Be normal, as much as he could. He'd never lie to her about what happened to him, he knew he couldn't, but even with him, it was pleasant to pretend that everything was all right, at least for a while.


End file.
